A Multimodal Transportation Strategy for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Region
The region’s transportation connections are central to the economic competitiveness and prosperity of the region and the quality of life of 107 million people that call the region home. They will be just as critical to region’s future in a borderless global economy.
But parts of the region’s transportation have frayed. Aging infrastructure and capacity constraints stress the region’s transportation systems. Intensifying infrastructure problems is the legacy of silo-based planning. The region also face new and emerging technologies that will profoundly change how people and freight use transportation infrastructure and move through the region.
At the Great Lakes Economic Forum, which is took place from April 25-26 in Detroit, Michigan at the Cobo Center, the Council of the Great Lakes Region (the “Council”), in partnership with CPCS Transcom Inc, released a report that presents the first-ever multimodal transportation vision and strategy for the cross-border Great Lakes region, which spans eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, and opportunities for growing the tourism sector.
Similarly, transportation strategies and plans of the past have largely been based on linear trends and projections. It is unlikely the future will be similarly linear. Therefore, it is paramount that regional government and business leaders, across all levels and sectors, commit themselves to organizing a connected transportation system that is adaptive and resilient to change and uncertainty, providing options to industry and empowering users to choose how they use the system.
The three broad strategies that could help position to move towards this vision include:
- Getting more productivity from existing infrastructure;
- Enabling more transportation options; and,
- Embracing and incentivizing technology and innovation.
Release Date
April 26, 2017
